Speaking Out for Dying Languages

By Merryl Kravitz

Extinction looms for approximately half of the 6,000 languages spoken in the world. “With the disappearance of unwritten and undocumented lan- guages, humanity would lose not only a cultural wealth but also important
ancestral knowledge embedded, in particular, in indigenous languages,” warns the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 1

Addressing this crisis proves urgent. Unless something is done, most of the imperiled tongues will die out by the 22nd century, forecasts the concerned linguist
Michael Krauss, professor emeritus at University of Alaska Fairbanks. 2